~ Serenity is golden… But sometimes a few ripples are needed as proof of life.

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Serenity is golden… But sometimes a few ripples are needed as proof of life.

— Arti

After seven years in the blogosphere, I feel I must leave this page as a constant re-invention, perpetual de- and re-construction, just like the person, always a work in progress.

Some things never change though. Despite always restraining her fleeing impulse, Arti is still firmly rooted in Southern Alberta, Canada, trying to maintain a precarious hybrid identity in culture and language, and holding on to a fusion of eclectic interests and passions. In her previous write-up of this page, she had included many favourites. Those lists have simply grown too long over the years. So now they have been removed, but the comments are still here, for Arti treasures them even more than her own words.

And for favorites, they remain books, films, nature, and all things beautiful.

In this day of tehno-social overload, solitude and serenity may be the most needed pursuits, and ‘slowness’, a virtue. But, sometimes a few ripples are essential as signs of vitality and proof of life.

As before, Arti excels in hindsights and delayed resonance, thus the name for this Blog.

I welcome you to throw a few pebbles in this pond… stir up some ripples, or make a splash.

Hi Arti! I just dropped by to say thanks for visiting my new blog and for your kind comments.

I also read with interest your recent “to read or not to read posts”. I started to type a response, but realized it would be quite long, so I abandoned it. But here’s a summary. Basically, I agree with what you said in those posts. I do not believe that literary works will be unread in the future, as long as society works to remind itself of their value. In fact, I believe that society does not have an infinite threshold of tolerance for technology. (Personally, I have moments when I long for nothing but to dump my computer in the nearest trash bin.) At some point, technology becomes oppressive, and society will correct itself. Meanwhile, those beloved literary works will be the comfort of the technology-jaded.

Thanks for your kind comment on my blog. I am really glad you stopped by. Ripple Effects is excellent! It is so exciting to cross paths with someone who enjoys discussing movies as much as I do. We seem to have some similar interests in terms of film, books, and music. I can’t wait to read through your archives!

I have a question, Do you do reviews on books for readers ages 9-12. I am seeking a review for my upcoming novel and would like to know if you could please send me your review submission guidelines.
Thank you
Gregg Seeley

Hi- Thanks for leaving a comment on my blog. You and I have so much in common. Dances with Wolves is one of my faves. Charles Dickens, James Taylor, Emily Dickinson, Simon & Garfunkel.
You have an awesome blog!
Do you like movies like The Royal Tennenbaums or The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou?
Jennifer

What a great blog! Every New Year my friends and I share our top 5 favorite books for the year so that we have good recommendations for the coming year. I started a facebook group based on it. Anyway, I love sharing book recommendations, etc. so I will post a link to your blog on mine. Cheers!

Hi Arti;
Thanks for dropping by my blog and for your compliments. I have been enjoying catching up on some of your posts on art and its appearance in movies. I encourage you to take a look at the Stone Angel again. I was floored! I am going to have to take another look at “Witness” and look for that Vermeer lighting…
I most certainly plan to drop by often. Nice to ‘meet’ you!
Michelle

Hi Arti, thanks so much for dropping in and writing a comment on my blog. I really enjoyed reading yours. So you’re also a movie buff and a bookworm. And you love traveling and immersing yourself in different cultures? Boy, am I glad to have found your blog.

.Cilla,

Yes, Ripple Effects is kind of a ‘variety blog’. But films and books are the main thing. Thanks for dropping by.

Hi – I just read your comment on Synchronizing about the painter You said in your comment “(he’s of American descent I learned)” I’d like to know where you learned this as I always thought he was of Armenian descent, not American. Both his parents were Armenian and his real name was Hovhannes Aivazian. In his early painting he even signed with his Armenian name and in the Armenian alphabet. So if he was of American descent I’d like to hear about it. Thanks for your help.

.Vagabonde,

You are absolutely right. I misread the word. Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky was of Armenian descent. Thank you for pointing this out to me. 😉

Hello
Just happened to chance upon your blog and it has been a pure pleasure to peruse your posts. I really loved your reviews; written so beautifully that I wished to get some books your discussed.
Thank you.

.Dovereader,

Welcome… and thank you for your kind words. Hope you’ll share your views on some of the books and films discussed here on Ripple Effects. Do come back to visit.

There is something about you that has always resonated with me. While I know virtually nothing of your life, I feel I know you in a more cerebral, metaphysical way — by the things you are drawn to, the books you read, the movies you review, the quotes you highlight like the one on serenity above.

Thank you for dropping by my very neglected corner of the world to let me know I am missed. You have no idea what that means to me right now. I have been thinking about posting again with longer life and work pauses in between, so please don’t give me up for lost. I’ve just been on an unusually slow ice floe bobbing along the ripples.

And just to let you know how certain things can stay with someone long after they’ve been said, I want to remind you of a very precious comment you once made to me on my blog. It was on my little autobiographical piece Noticed. You said,

“If you ever write a memoir, I’ll be the first in line to buy it… still remember your video clip… your insight and styling of your inner world… simply exquisite.”

That has never left me. It was one of the most loveliest compliments I ever received. So while I may not seem very present these days, our exchanges are still very much alive inside my head.

I’ve been blogging for four years. I try to save a copy of every post before I publish. But if one day there’s a global internet meltdown, what I’m going to miss most would be comments like yours here, filled with a generous and gracious spirit that’s ever so uplifting.

What you’ve said just shows that blogging is not merely a social medium, but as your exquisite word use so aptly denotes: we’re joined in a cerebral and metaphysical level. Our exchanges in the blogosphere strike a deeper chord every now and then, one that can stir up ripples much farther than the original stone. I thank you for eliciting such an effect. Take your time with your hiatus, EA. As you said, we have old comments to cherish. 😉

I’m an award-winning author with a new book of fiction out last month.
Ugly To Start With is a series of thirteen interrelated stories about
adolescence published by West Virginia University Press.

All the stories in my collection have been previously published in
well-regarded print and online literary magazines such as The Iowa
Review, Passager, The Bitter Oleander, Confrontation, Salt River
Review, The Foliate Oak. and The Cortland Review.

Can I interest you in reviewing it?

If you write me back at johnmcummings@aol.com, I can email you a PDF of my book. If you require a bound copy, please ask, and I will forward your reply to my publisher. Or you can write directly to Abby Freeland at:

Here’s what Jacob Appel, celebrated author of
Dyads and The Vermin Episode, says about my new collection: “In Ugly to Start With, set in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia, Cummings tackles the challenges of boyhood adventure and family conflict in a taut, crystalline style that captures the triumphs and tribulations of small-town life. He has a gift for transcending the particular experiences to his characters to capture the universal truths of human affection and suffering–emotional truths that the members of his audience will recognize from their own experiences of childhood and adolescence.”

My short stories have appeared in more than seventy-five literary journals, including North American Review, The Kenyon Review, Alaska Quarterly Review, and The Chattahoochee Review. Twice I have been nominated for The Pushcart Prize. My short story “The Scratchboard Project” received an honorable mention in The Best American Short Stories 2007.

I am also the author of the nationally acclaimed coming-of-age novel The Night I Freed John Brown (Philomel Books, Penguin Group, 2009), winner of The Paterson Prize for Books for Young Readers (Grades 7-12) and one of ten books recommended by USA TODAY.

Dear Arti,
Thanks for your post
Can a movie adaptation ever be as good as the book?
I found it /your blog today. I’d been reading Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse and was so moved by it that my first thought was that I wouldn’t go to see the Spielberg film in case it somehow detracted from that experience. My second thought was to be slightly uncomfortable about that defensiveness. So I was in search of a piece on the process of adaptation to give me the concepts with which to think a bit more deeply.I found your article really helpful and have signed up as a follower.
Good luck with your future writing,
Alison Siddall
Sedbergh, Cumbria, UK

Welcome and thank you so much for your kind words. I’m so glad you found my post/blog, and that the article about book into film is helpful for you. I haven’t read Morpurgo’s War Horse, but plan to see the movie this weekend. I hope it is an adaptation that’s worthy of its source. It is my passion for books and films that draws me to appreciate them as distinct art forms, and yet, as related and contextualized entities that share more than just the same title. I’m learning everyday how this fine balance can be achieved as new books and film adaptations come out. Hopefully War Horse is one of those I’d include in the list of memorable adaptations. Thank you so much for your interest. Hope to hear from you again!

Dear Arti,
Thanks so much for your reply 🙂
(I realised on reflection I probably commented on the wrong section of your blog….It probably should have been under the article in question…sorry).
A very brief bit of additional background which I was too shy to write yesterday. I am an English as a Foreign Language teacher. Having worked in Prague I came back to the UK and started having “homestay” student guests. I stopped for a while as my Mum fell and needed care. I have a small blog (intended for former Czech teacher-colleague/friends and former student-guest/friends) and which, over time, has served three purposes: a vocabulary store, a photo archive when I was busier and, since the turn of the year, a place to put some recommendations of good books I have read. I published my post on War Horse today, recommending your adaptation article and your blog to my friends. Here’s a link:http://thecoachhouseblog.blogspot.com/
Enjoy the film 🙂 I look forward to your future postings.
Alison

.Alison,

Thanks for coming back again and letting me know more about you and your blog. I’ve just been there and it’s wonderful. Thanks for sharing. Also, guess we’ve something more in common other than books, I used to teach ESL here in Canada. And… know how blogging can help English learners too. 🙂

I do not know how you can read so many books a year. I may be 15 or 20 in. This year, not so many, after 1Q84 and Anna Karenina (in process) , which both take a long time for me.

I love Anne Dillard (especially Teaching a Stone to Talk) and Susan Orlean (with whom I spent some time talking one night during a thunderstorm) and miss desperatly Douglass Adams. I am what you might call eclectic in reading matter.

Arti, I work for Little Pickle Press which just published a picture book titled, Ripple’s Effect. May I send you a pdf to look at to see if you’d like to review it on this blog? It’s such a perfect match. 🙂 I’ve left my email below and will try to connect on Twitter also. Thank you!

Greetings from far away Australia,
Keep up your creative passion; the ability to see beauty wherever one looks is a gift that few people possess, but essential to warm ones heart and those around us.
God bless

Arti, I would very much appreciate your visiting my very new blog site- commenting perhaps just straight to me on whatever strikes you as interesting, not working, so forth. I’m on a second-half of life quest for answers to “what the heck are we saying about women”, and thus half of humanity, in the great rolling strip that is media today.

Dear Arti,
OK how can i say you are very special and a super blogger without sounding like false flattery? Well keeping your love of all things natural to heart, let me just say you rock!
I want to share my latest blogpost (To Create or Not To Create: That is the Question) which is about creating something and doing it in a great venue/project for women called “From Shadow to Seen” (http://www.fromshadowtoseen.com/).
Anyway, I know you are busy but hope you read about it.
Fondly,
Hedda

I happened to land on your blog by accident and was intrigued by the name of the blog as mine is ‘Ripples’. And another surprise when I saw your site for this was my first theme and it made me nostalgic!

Welcome Aadhira! It’s a coincidence that we have similar blog names, but then again, I’m not surprised. ‘Ripples’ is a good word.;) I started this blog back in 2007, have been running it since, non-stop. I write all my posts and all birding photos are taken by me. I write reviews on books and films and post nature photography. Hope to hear from you again.